Girl Kicked Out of Dance Because Dads Couldn't Stop Ogling Her

By: Mackenzie Wright | December 5, 2018

A young homeschooled girl was looking forward to going to her prom. Excited about the evening she bought a dress with her own money, got a date and waltzed in with high hopes. Now, she claims she was slut-shamed and expelled from the prom due to lecherous dads.

Clare Ettinger knew her Richmond Homeschool Prom had a dress code, and she said she was careful to pay attention. “Like a good little homeschooler,” Clare writes, “I made sure that the dress was fingertip length on me; I even tried it on with my shoes, just to be sure.”

But when Clare showed up in her dress, she had not anticipated the stir it would cause. It wasn't the other students, the 17-year-old says, but the dads. She reported that ‘dads on the balcony above the dance floor, ogling and talking amongst themselves.’

Clare said she and her friends felt 'grossed out,' according to Homeschoolers Anonymous, a website that offers a platform for those who have problems with their parent's educational choice.

Clare was ultimately approached by a chaperone and kicked out of the prom. “I was told that the way I dressed and moved my body was causing men to think inappropriately about me, implying that it is my responsibility to control other people’s thoughts and drives,” Clare wrote in a narrative.

“Enough with the slut shaming. Please. Goddamn I’m not responsible for some perverted 45 year old dad lusting after me because I have a sparkly dress on and a big ass for a teenager. And if you think I am, then maybe you’re part of the problem,” the teen concluded.

There are always two sides to every story, of course. On another website, a fellow student who attended the prom wrote that Clare's dress was stretchy and did not stay down when she moved or danced, and Clare was warned several times through the evening. She also said that the dads were on the balcony to solve a lighting issue, and she took offense to Clare's insinuations that they had anything to do with her being asked to leave. That side of the story never made it to Homeschoolers Anonymous.